Ted Bergmann, Sr.
|birth_place = Brooklyn, New York |died = |death_place = Santa Monica, California |occupation = TV, radio and film screewriter, producer, and network and advertising executive |yearsactive = 1941 to 1998 |series = Three's Company / The Ropers / Three's a Crowd |job = co-founder with Don Taffner of Bergmann-Taffner Productions, which produced Three's Company and its spioffs |children = Ted Bergmann, Jr. }}Ted Bergmann (12 September 1920 - 2 March 2014) was co-founder of Bergmann-Taffner Producitions, which produced Three's Company as well as its spinoffs, The Ropers and Three's a Crowd. He is the father of longtime TV producer/director Ted Bergmann, who was also involved with Three's Company and Three's a Crowd as a producer. Life and Career Ted, who wore multiple hats in the entertainment industry as a Hollywood television and radio producer, screenwriter, announcer, network and advertising executive, who broke into television, working for the DuMont Television Network in the late 1940s, he would eventually rise in the ranks at the network during the 1950s. Later on, beginning in the 1967, Bergmann would take on even more jobs, first beginning as a scriptwriter for the popular CBS-TV variety/comedy series The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, eventually branching out and taking on the role of producer and production manger for several popular TV series from the 1970s through the 1990s. Born the second of three sons to Augustus Henry Bergmann, a co-founder of the American Home Products Association (which eventually evolved into what is now The Wyatt Company) and his wife Johnna (née Roman) attended Great Neck High School, then transferred to and graduated from the Governor's Academy (then Governor Dummers Academy) in 1937. Bergmann attended both Amherst College in Massachusetts before transferring to New York University, where he changed his major from liberal arts to journalism, but did not graduate. In 1941 Bergmann, after working for a short time in one of his father's stores, became page staff of NBC radio Studios in Rockefeller Center, and worked there until 1942, when he enlisted in the United States Army, serving in Germany during World War II. Upon his discharge after wars' end in 1946, he resumed his job at NBC Studios for about a year before landing a job as part of the Sales Department at the fledgling DuMont Television Network in 1947 where he was the Managing Director of the Broadcast Division , where he was responsible for selling commercial advertising time to clients for such early DuMont TV shows such as The Original Amateur Hour, Fashions on Parade, Captain Video and His Video Rangers, The Arthur Murray Party, Cavalcade of Stars, and Life Is Worth Living. Script-writing and Production In 1967, after the dissolving of the DuMont Network, and several years of working in numerous film and TV projects as a stage crew member Ted took on his first job as a scriptwriter, writing 26 episodes for the popular CBS-TV series The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour; he would then write an episode of the NBC-TV sitcom The Munsters in 1968, eventually going on to write scripts for Gimme a Break, Small Wonder, Out of This World, and It's Garry Shandling's Show. He also wrote several episodes of the popular NBC-TV series Sanford and Son, and its short-lived 1980 spinoff series Sanford, . By 1976, Bergmann would take on the job as the production manager for the ABC-TV sitcom Three's Company, serving in that capacity during the series eight season run on ABC. He also would serve in a similar capacity for its spinoff series The Ropers and Three's a Crowd. He also would serve as the producer for the made-for-TV films The Best on Record (1968), Death Stalk (1970), and Chelsea D.H.O. (1973) and The Good Ol' Boys in 1979. Death Bergmann, retired from television since 1998, resides in Southern California. He died 2 March 2014 in Los Angeles after an unspecified surgery at age 93."Ted Bergmann, Producer Who Brought Grammys to Television, Dies at 93", Associated Press. References External Links * * [http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/ted-bergmann# Ted Bergmann: Network Executive / Advertising Executive, Interview with Gary Flutowski at Archive of American Television website (emmytvlegends.org)] Category:Real People Category:Producers Category:Three's Company